A polymer formed article such as a plastic film is inexpensive and exhibits excellent workability. Therefore, such a polymer formed article is provided with a desired function, and used in various fields.
In recent years, use of a transparent plastic film as a substrate having electrode instead of a glass plate has been proposed for displays (e.g., liquid crystal display and electroluminescence (EL) display) in order to implement a reduction in thickness, a reduction in weight, an increase in flexibility, and the like. However, since such a plastic film easily allows water vapor, oxygen, and the like to pass through as compared with a glass plate, elements provided in a display may deteriorate.
In order to solve this problem, Patent Document 1 discloses a gas barrier film in which a gas barrier inorganic compound thin film is stacked on a polyester resin film.
However, the gas barrier film disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the following problems.    (i) The gas barrier capability of the gas barrier film is not satisfactory for practical applications.    (ii) A pinhole is easily formed in a layer formed on the gas barrier layer (inorganic compound thin film) due to insufficient surface flatness, and the gas barrier capability may significantly decrease in an area in which a pinhole is formed.    (iii) Since the film is formed by stacking a gas barrier layer formed of an inorganic compound on a base film formed of a polyester resin by a deposition method, an electron beam method, a sputtering method, or the like, the gas barrier capability may deteriorate by occurrence of cracks in the gas barrier layer when the laminate film is rounded or folded.
A method that alternately stacks inorganic films and organic films has been proposed in order to improve the bendability. However, this method results in a complex process, a decrease in adhesion, an increase in material cost, and the like.